The present invention relates to a light distribution switching device of a head lamp, and more particularly, to a light distribution switching device of a head lamp, which has an integrated shield structure capable of reducing the size of a product.
In general, a vehicle uses a lighting system to illuminate objects in the driving direction during night driving, or uses a lighting system to inform other vehicles or other road users of a driving state of the vehicle.
Among lighting systems for a vehicle, a head lamp which is also referred to as a headlight is mounted at both side fronts of a vehicle and illuminates the front road of the vehicle during night driving. Thus, the head lamp can secure the visibility of a driver in the driving direction. The head lamp requires brightness that allows the driver to check an obstacle at a predetermined distance on the front road. Furthermore, the light of the head lamp needs to be scattered to some extent in order to help the driver to check the surrounding conditions.
Simultaneously, the head lamp must not disturb other drivers coming in the opposite direction. For example, the head lamp may dazzle other drivers. In this case, the driver may switch the head lamp to a low beam or high beam mode.
In order to switch between the low-beam mode and the high-beam mode, the conventional head lamp includes a low beam which is turned on in the night time at normal times and a high beam which is used only on a lonely road where there are no night lightings or other vehicles.
However, when the high beam and the low beam are individually installed, components for the high beam and the low beam must be separately installed. Therefore, the conventional head lamp requires more parts and installation spaces.
In order to overcome such a problem, a light distribution switching device including a rotating shield has been developed. The light distribution switching device can selectively irradiate light of a high beam and light of a low beam using one light source. The light distribution switching device may rotate the shield using an actuator, and switch the mode of light irradiated from the head lamp to the low-beam mode or the high-beam mode.
Since the conventional light distribution switching device requires the complex structure to fix the shield and the actuator, the size of the device and the number of parts used in the device are inevitably increased to raise the manufacturing cost. Therefore, there is a demand for a device capable of solving the problem.